STATE COMMISSION OKS PROPOSED POWER PLANT

CARLSBAD  The California Energy Commission on Thursday approved a permit for a long-proposed power plant near the Carlsbad coast.

The vote comes five years after plans for the 558-megawatt plant were submitted by NRG Energy, the New Jersey-based company that owns the existing Encina Power Station in Carlsbad.

The new plant would be built next to the Encina station and its 400-foot smokestack.

“We need to start thinking about what happens if San Onofre is not re-licensed,” commission Chairman Robert Weisenmiller said just before the vote. “It’s better to have them where existing plants are than to try to do greenfield development.”

During the more than four-hour-long discussion before the vote, the commission heard arguments against approving the plant from the city; the Center for Biological Diversity; Power of Vision, which represents Carlsbad residents; and Terramar Association, a homeowners group that represents the coastal homes near the Encina plant.

City officials expressed disappointment with the decision but said they had doubts the project would ever get built.

“It’s important to keep in mind there is still a long road ahead before this project sees the light of day, if ever,” Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall said.

The city has fought the power plant proposal from the beginning, citing issues including visual blight, air pollution and safety. This week the City Council changed the city’s fire code to make the state the primary agency responsible for emergency and fire protection at the plant.

Carlsbad has spent nearly $2 million in legal fees fighting the project.

The project still has to clear the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state Lands Commission and the Regional Water Quality Control Board.